1. Field of the Invention
This field relates to software, and, more particularly to a system and method for altering a Windows-type registry.
2. Description
Computer systems have attained widespread use for providing computer power to many segments of today""s modem society. A personal computer system can usually be defined as a desk top, floor standing, or portable microcomputer that includes a system unit having one or more system processors and associated volatile and non-volatile memory, a display monitor, a keyboard, one or more diskette drives, a fixed disk storage device and an optional printer. One of the distinguishing characteristics of these systems is the use of a system board to electrically connect these components together. These personal computer systems are information handling systems which are designed primarily to give independent computing power to a single user (or a group of users in the case of personal computers which serve as computer server systems) and are inexpensively priced for purchase by individuals or small businesses.
A personal computer system may also include one or a plurality of I/O devices (i.e. peripheral devices) which are coupled to the system processor and which perform specialized functions. Examples of I/O devices include modems, sound and video devices or specialized communication devices. Mass storage devices such as hard disks, CD-ROM drives and magneto-optical drives are also considered to be peripheral devices.
Manufacturers of personal computers often pre-install an operating system, such as the Microsoft Windows NT(trademark) operating system, the Microsoft Windows 2000(trademark) operating system, or the IBM OS/2(trademark) operating system. These modem operating systems are increasingly large in terms of both complexity and storage requirements, often requiring several hundred megabytes of hard drive space. When a manufacturer installs an operating system, the manufacturer may use another computer to copy an image of the operating system from a separate hard drive onto the target hard drive being created, or the manufacturer may install the operating system on each machine sold.
Whether copying an image of a hard drive or installing the operating system on each customer system, changing the configuration of a customer""s system once the system has been sold to the customer to provide customizations is a lengthy technical procedure.
One part of an operating system that a customer may desire customizing or editing that is present on some Windows-type operating systems is the registry.
Long after a computer system is sold it may be discovered that a registry key needs to be deleted or edited. However, security systems within the operating systems can prohibit a computer user from resolving the problems associated with the registry keys. For example, a computer user may be a network user who is working on a computer system connected to a network. The security system in Windows NT prevents certain users from accessing each registry key. In order to delete or edit a problem registry key, a user with Administrator privileges must follow difficult and highly technical steps. Often, a call to the manufacturer technical support is necessary to complete the task of removing registry keys.
What is needed is an efficient system and method of editing registry keys from a Windows NT or similar Windows operating systems.
A computer system and method modifies registry keys via a self-deleting background process that downloads to a user""s desktop and bypasses operating system securities. The background process modifies configuration files in a registry via a downloadable desktop component. A method for a computer system having a registry includes installing a background process, bypassing computer operating system securities for the registry via the background process, modifying the registry via the background process, and removing the background process. The method further includes providing a desktop component related to an executable file that executes when the user selects the desktop component. Following the execution of the executable file, the method includes modifying configuration files including registry keys and automatically removing the executable file, the desktop component and files associated with the executable file.
A computer system includes a processor coupled to a bus, at least one memory coupled to the bus, a plurality of input/output devices coupled to the bus, and an operating system stored in memory, the operating system includes a registry of configuration files, operating system securities for the registry, the operating system securities preventing modification of the registry according to a permissions system, a self-deleting background process, wherein the background process bypasses the operating system securities for the registry via the background process, and the background process modifies configuration files in the registry. The computer system also includes a user-activated desktop component that is related to an executable file that installs the self-deleting background process. The executable file removes the user-activated desktop component after the configuration files are modified. The computer system also includes a self-deleting executable file including a utility file that installs the self-deleting background process.